- The Mexican Migration Project (MMP) was created in 1982 by an interdisciplinary team of - researchers to further our understanding of the complex process of Mexican migration to the - United States. The project is a binational research effort co-directed by Jorge Durand, - professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Guadalajara (Mexico), and Douglas S. - Massey, professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, with a joint appointment in the Woodrow - Wilson School, at Princeton University (US). -
-- Since its inception, the MMP's main focus has been to gather social as well as economic - information on Mexican-US migration. The data collected has been compiled in a comprehensive - database that is available to the public free of charge for research and educational - purposes through this web-site. -
-- The MMP is a unique source of data that enables researchers to track patterns and processes - of contemporary Mexican immigration to the United States. The project is a - multi-disciplinary research effort that generates public use data on the characteristics and - behavior of Mexican migrants. -
+Project Aims
diff --git a/src/pages/study-design.astro b/src/pages/study-design.astro index 0b491b6..ed7d249 100644 --- a/src/pages/study-design.astro +++ b/src/pages/study-design.astro @@ -1,7 +1,6 @@ --- -import { ReaderIcon } from "@radix-ui/react-icons" import Layout from "../layouts/Layout.astro" -import CircleIcon from "../components/svg/Circle" +import * as lede from "../content/pages/study-design.md" ---
Design
-- The data contained in the various MMP databases have been gathered using an approach that - borrows from anthropological and sociological research methods. In particular, our study - employs the Ethnosurvey approach, which combines the techniques of ethnographic fieldwork - and representative survey sampling to gather qualitative as well as quantitative data. The - two kinds of empirical data are compared throughout the study to yield results of greater - validity than either ethnography or a sample survey could provide alone. This method was - designed to provide a picture of Mexican-US migration that is historically grounded, - ethnographically interpretable, quantitatively accurate, and rooted in receiving as well - as sending areas. -
-- Each year, during the winter months (when seasonal migrants tend to return home), the MMP - randomly samples households in communities located throughout Mexico. After gathering - social, demographic, and economic information on the household and its members, - interviewers collect basic immigration information on each person's first and last trip to - the United States. From household heads and spouses, we compile detailed year-by-year - labor history and migration information; in addition, for household head migrants, we - administer a detailed series of questions about their last trip to the U.S., focusing on - employment, earnings, and use of U.S. social services. -
-- Following completion of the Mexican surveys, interviewers travel to destination areas in - the United States to administer identical questionnaires to migrants from the same - communities sampled in Mexico who have settled north of the border and no longer return - home. These surveys are combined with those conducted in Mexico to generate a - representative binational sample. -
-Selecting Communities
-- The process of selecting communities for the Mexican Migration has traditionally relied on - anthropological methods. Communities are chosen after a personal reconnaissance of the - geographic area to be studied by the principal investigators. Because the project - initially focused on Western Mexico, the traditional heartland for migration to the United - States, practically all of the earliest communities had significant indices of - out-migration, which could easily be detected using field interviews and simple - observations of the frequency of new homes, foreign license plates, currency exchanges, - and international courier services. -
-- Until 2000, we lacked access to a valid measure to indicate the intensity of emigration - from specific municipalities and the only measure indicating migration was the sex - ratio. The only demographic fact regularly considered was the community's sex ratio, - which offer general picture of the intensity of the process of international migration - because in Mexico emigration is so heavily male. After an initial round of fieldwork, - investigators compared their preliminary data with census statistics and formation - available from bibliographic sources. However, the MMP has never explicitly sought to - survey only communities with high rates of out-migration. Investigators simply seek to - corroborate that there is some migration from the community in question before - proceeding. Then they select four specific locations to represent each of four levels of - urbanization: -
- -Ranchos
-fewer than 2,500 inhabitants
-Pueblos (Towns)
-2,500 to 10,000 inhabitants
-Mid-sized Cities
-10,000 to 100,000 inhabitants
-Large City
-- usually a particular neighborhood within in a state's capital city -
-- In the pueblos and ranchos, investigators conduct a complete census of dwellings and - undertake random selection from the resulting list. In mid-sized cities and urban - metropolises, investigators generally chose a traditional, well-established - neighborhood–one not dominated by recent rural-urban migrants. As a result, the urban - samples are in reality samples of urban neighborhoods or specifically demarcated quarters. - In all cases, the neighborhood must have at least 1,200 enumerated dwellings, from which a - random sample of 200 is taken. -
-- The methodology of the MMP thus yields results with a high degree of representativeness at - the community level, and in some of the smaller pueblos and ranchos investigators have - been able to survey every household in the community. Given that the sample is not - targeted to migrants per se, but surveys the community as a whole, the project needs a - fairly large sample size to generate a significant number of migrants. Traditional methods - of cluster sampling generally survey small numbers of respondents across a large number of - areas, but this generally yields small numbers of migrants to study an inability to make - generalizations at the community level. For example, rather than interviewing 20 - households in five communities we interview 100 households in one community, thereby - enabling us to make generalizations about migratory processes at the community level. If - the frequency of migration is 30%, on average the surveys would contain only six migrants - in each of the five communities, rather than 30 migrants in one community. -
-- At present we are able to draw upon an index of migratory developed for municipalities in - Mexico’s National Population Council (CONAPO) based on the 2000 and 2010 census. This - index provides reliable information about the level of U.S. migration prevailing at the - municipal level and is particularly useful in identifying new communities of origin for - migrants in new sending states, where heretofore little information has been available. In - sum, after 25 years of field experience, the MMP continues to use anthropological criteria - for selecting communities, which are then corroborated with available data from the census - and other sources to confirm the existence of migrants before making the final selection. -
-Ethnosurvey
-- The Ethnosurvey is eclectic and draws on methods and approaches well-known in sociology, - anthropology, psychology, and education. Its contribution and complexity lies in the way - all these methods are combined within a single study. The main idea for the Ethnosurvey is - “to complement qualitative and quantitative procedures, so one's weakenesses become the - other's strength, yielding a body of data with greater reliability and more internal - validity than is possible to achieve using either method alone.” (Massey 1987). -
-- The Ethnosurvey contains a series of tables that are organized around a particular topic, - giving coherence to the “conversation”. It follows a semi structured format to generate an - interview schedule that is flexible, unobtrusive and non-threatening. It requires that - identical information be obtained for each person, but questions, wording and ordering are - not fixed. The precise phrasing and timing of each query is left to the judgment of the - interviewer, depending on circumstances. -
-- In addition, the Ethnosurvey is explicitly designed to provide quantitative data for - multi-level analysis by compiling data at the individual, household, and community levels. - Detailed community-level data are compiled at the time of the survey by the fieldwork - supervisor; these data are of great help to interpret the socioeconomic context within - which individuals and households interact (Massey 1987). This small questionnaire is - referred to as the Community Data Inventory. -
-Interview Process
-- The questionnaires are applied in three phases. In the first phase, basic social and - demographic data are collected from all members of the household. The interview begins by - identifying the household head and systematically enumerating the spouse and children, - beginning with the oldest. All children of the head are listed on the questionnaire - whether or not they live at home, but if a son or daughter is a member of another - household, this fact is recorded. A child is considered to be living in a separate - household if he or she is married, maintains a separate house or kitchen, and organizes - expenses separately. After listing the head, spouse, and children, other household members - are identified and their relationship to the head clarified. -
-Phase 1
-- A particularly important task in the first phase of the questionnaire is the - identification of people with prior migrant experience in either the United States or - Mexico. For those individuals with migrant experience the interviewer records the - total number of U.S. trips, as well as information about the first and most recent - U.S. trips, including the year, duration, destination, U.S. occupation, legal status, - and hourly wage. This exercise is then repeated for first and most recent migrations - within Mexico. -
-Phase 2
-- The second phase of the ethnosurvey questionnaire compiles a year-by-year life history - for all household heads, including a childbearing history, a property history, a - housing history, a business history, and a labor history. The goal of this phase is to - capture occupational mobility, health status, migration history, and family formation. -
-Phase 3
-- The third and final phase of the questionnaire gathers information about the household - head's experiences on his or her most recent trip to the United States, including the - mode of border-crossing, the kind and number of accompanying relatives, the kind and - number of relatives already present in the United States, the number of social ties - that had been formed with U.S. citizens, English language ability, job - characteristics, and use of U.S. social services. -
-Data Coding/Weights
-Data Coding and File Construction
-- After the ethnosurvey questionnaires are completed and revised, data are entered in - Mexico. The entry programs perform initial screening, range checks, and simple tests for - logical consistency. The preliminary files are then transferred to Princeton University, - where additional data cleaning is performed, numeric codes are assigned to occupations - and places, and the final data sets are assembled into six primary data files, each - providing a unique perspective of Mexican migrants, their families, and their - experiences. SIX primary files have been created, each corresponding to a different unit - of analysis: PERS, MIG, MIGOTHER, HOUSE, LIFE and SPOUSE. Data at the community level - have been compiled in the file: COMMUN. -
-Weights
-- The MMP database provides community- and sample-specific weights. For each community, - you will see a single weight for all the households in the home country sample and - another weight for all the households in the US sample. -
-- When working with pooled data from multiple communities, these weights give you the - option to adjust your estimates in order to take into account the relative sizes of all - the sampling frames. Whether you will need to weight your estimates or not will depend - on what your goal is. -
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